Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EnergyMEASURES (Tailored measures supporting energy vulnerable households)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-09-01 do 2022-05-31
The first strand is involving working with energy poor households to improve their energy efficiency through a combination of low-cost measures, and changes in their energy-related behaviours and practices. EnergyMeasures is mapping out key indicators characterising those most at-risk of energy poverty while leveraging partners’ ongoing projects and using their existing relationships with energy poor and at-risk households to recruit them for the household energy engagement programmes.
The second strand will comprise working with municipalities, energy authorities, housing associations and other relevant actors to assess how current multi-level institutional contexts affect efforts to alleviate energy vulnerability in the participating countries. These interlinked activities will also consider gender differentials in both people’s relationship with institutional actors and their lived experience of energy, and EnergyMeasures will work to mainstream this approach across the wider energy poverty community.
At the mid-point of the project, 1749 householders have been recruited in the project. And together, energy advisors and householders are aiming to both understand the energy performance of their residence and to capture their energy-related practices and behaviours. Surveys, interviews and focus-groups have been used to identify the best options for saving energy for each market segment, and specific actions which each household can take to reduce their energy demand are being suggested.
Small energy measures are supplied to each household and this is being leveraged for a more wide-ranging engagement supporting householders to understand and change their own energy-related practices, habits and behaviours. Ongoing support is provided, during which advisors are checking in with householders to monitor and providing them with encouragement and advice. In addition to a dedicated website section, email bulletins and messages on social media are providing householders with tips and reminders about specific changes to their behaviour.
Within the second (institutional focused) strand of the project, a total of 95 interviews have been undertaken across the seven participating countries. This has provided a number of useful insights into the lived experience of energy vulnerable households, particularly in relation to the inequalities people are coping with during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Analysis of these interviews points toward the importance of strengthening social resilience, particularly through intermediary organisations. The analysis also revealed these intermediaries are going beyond behavioural change interventions and instead are aiming to strengthen energy poor households’ capabilities to cope with energy poverty. These findings provide relevant points of departure for subsequent work in the project.
Furthermore, existing policies and other support schemes for energy-vulnerable households in the seven partner countries were analysed using a social resilience and environmental justice lens. Findings pointed to the relevance of recognising the specific needs of energy poor households relating to their capabilities and available resources while assessing the distributive impacts of these policies.
These interlinked activities undertaken during this reporting period have considered gender differentials in both people’s relationship with institutional actors and their lived experience of energy.
Based on our experience in implementing household energy projects, and these data, we estimate that a tailored package of small measures (i.e. a selection of the listed measures, selected with, and suited to, individuals households specificities) in combination with a bespoke energy change plan for households – supported through visits of trained advisors will deliver an average reduced energy demand of 850 kWh per household across the seven countries, with reduced electricity demand of c. 325 kWh and reduced heating energy demand (including electricity) of c. 525 kWh.
EnergyMeasures also aims to produce a set of policy recommendations on energy poverty which will impact on policies and strategies across Europe. In order to maximise impact, the project will systematically identify and exploit opportunities to contribute to the policy development process in all partner countries, as well as at the European level. This will involve: contributing to policy development in different sectoral areas which are relevant to energy poverty, such as energy policy, housing policy, anti-poverty strategies, etc.; contributing to national renovation strategies; etc. We will focus on influencing a limited number of high-impact national policies, at crucial moments. Our partners are already actively engaged in policy advocacy and support at national and local level in their countries as well as at the European level this existing profile and their current activities in this area ensure the achievability of these targets.